Conversations For
Transformation
isn't a blog ie it's not a weblog. If it comes across as a blog or as a commentary or
as a report, then I would have failed in my
intention
to make it available. To be sure, people do refer to it occasionally
as a blog. When they do, I'll say it's an
internetseries of
essays
inspired by the ideas of
Werner Erhard,
not a blog. And if they say "What's the difference?" or
"How is this different than a blog?", they give me an opportunity to
distinguish between the two, an opportunity to distinguish between
reporting on Life / commenting on Life / opining about
Life, and
creating
Life.
Interestingly
enough, the opportunity to make this distinction, the distinction
between reporting on Life / commenting on Life / opining about Life,
and
creating
Life, is an opportunity to bring forth one of the most fundamental
distinctions of
transformation.

What this
collection of
essays
on this
website
is for me, is my expression of acknowledgement of
Werner Erhard
who introduced me to
transformation.
In certain very real respects,
creating
this
websiteis my relationship with
Werner.
And it's my
intention
to share this relationship not because there's anything special
about me. There isn't. I don't see myself as any different than
anyone else. I'm quite ordinary and probably a bit boring. In many
respects, I don't have anything unusual going on in my life. No, I
share it just because it's worth sharing.

For those of you who already have a relationship with
Werner
(in which case, you're in a group whose numbers comprise in the
millions) I share this with you as a gift because it's my
intention
to support, expand, or accelerate your relationship with
Werner.
And it is simply a gift - which you'll decline or accept. There's no
assumption over here that your relationship with
Wernerrequires any support, expansion, and acceleration,
because actually it doesn't. And if you don't (yet) have a
relationship with
Werner
(which is to say if you don't yet know you already have a
relationship with
Werner),
it
creates
the possibility for you of finding out what's available as a new way
of being, into which you may never have inquired before.

There are relationships based on mutual need. This is not that.
There are relationships based on having similar
interests.
This is not that either. There are relationships based on
obligation. There are also relationships based on simply being
stuck in the relationship. There are relationships based on
leader / follower
models. This is none of the above. The relationship about which
I'm speaking here, essentially started with my own recognition of
who I really am.

That's not the recognition of
who I really am
like an
identity
manipulating Life for my own purposes in order to survive. Rather
it's the recognition of
who I really am
like space, like the
context
in which all the events of my life occur, indeed the
context
in which all the events of Life itself occurs. It's from this
recognition of myself as space, as the
context
in which the events of my life occur, indeed in which all the events
of Life itself occurs,
that I get
Werner
as that
Self-same
space.

This means there's the possibility of relationship (profound
friendship
actually) based on mutual recognition, based on mutual respect,
based on (this is critical) mutual independence. It's this
relationship of mutual recognition, of mutual respect, and of mutual
independence on which this
internet
series of
Conversations For
Transformation
was founded. Actually that's only a small part of its raison
d'etre. Its true raison d'etre is to share the possibility of
this relationship with you so you can take it and make it your own,
independent of me. What's on offer here is the possibility of
relationship, the possibility of profound
friendshipwherever people are - which is everywhere and anywhere.

I can't hold on to and keep
transformation
for myself.
God
knows I've tried. I've tried very hard to do this -
really hard. But it doesn't
work
that way - and I don't know
why
it doesn't
work
that way. What I can tell you is it just doesn't
work
that way. What I can also tell you is (which is to say, what I've
also discovered
works)
is if I want to keep
transformation,
I have to give it away.

Transformation
isn't yours or mine per se - it's certainly not mine.
Being in a relationship with
Wernerisn't my relationship with
Werner.
My relationship with
Werner
is sharing being in a relationship with
Werner.
And if the
word"relationship" with
Werner
makes it sound too personal, makes it sound too mine,
makes it sound
too much
like something which isn't generally available to anyone and
everyone, try substituting the
word"partnership" with
Werner
for "relationship" with
Werner,
and then notice how something becomes generally and widely and
freely
available which wasn't generally and widely and
freely
available before, for everyone.

<aside>

Did you get what I just did? Did you?

Thank You!

<un-aside>

So if I want to keep my relationship with
Werner,
if i want to keep my partnership with
Werner,
I have to give it away. And I'm not under any obligation to do this.
There's no coercion. I'm not paid to do this. Nobody
asked me to do this. I've made no agreements to do this. Rather,
doing this, making this ongoingly growing
collection of
essays
available
free
on the
internetreveals (not
creates)
a partnership with
Werner
- which is what I do. What I do is I reveal the possibility
of a partnership with
Werner.
This is what these
Conversations For
Transformation
are. This is all these
Conversations For
Transformation
are. There's no ulterior motive. Honest!

Unlike any other endeavor which would take the time and the same
commitment
as it takes to
create
these
Conversations For
Transformation,
I'm not in this because I'm driven by a hunger for a personal
payoff for myself. To be sure, if and when I've said in a
conversation with
friends
(or with notfriends)
a personal payoff for myself doesn't drive me writing these
Conversations For
Transformation,
it's often challenged. And it's never as mild as
"Why
would you write
Conversations For
Transformation
if there's no personal payoff for yourself?". It's much more deeply
entrenched and broad than that. It's
"Why
would you ever do anything if there's no personal
payoff for yourself?".

Listen: there's
nothing wrong
with living your life in order to get a personal payoff. Really
there isn't. What it is, is simply distinct from living your life
in order to live your life. It's simply distinct from living
your life as if your life depends on it. When you live your
life in order to live your life, when you live your life as if your
life depends on it, you have, recognized or not, acknowledged or
not, a relationship with
Werner,
a partnership with
Werner.
And that's a statement about
who you are
and about
who I am
and about
who we are
and about
who Werner is.

Such a relationship, such a partnership isn't formed out of need or
obligation. Rather it's a relationship, a partnership based on
acknowledgement and recognition, a partnership of power and respect.
That's one of the tangible results of writing these
Conversations For
Transformation:
they make that quality available by speaking / writing it into
existence like a possibility.

What's available here for you, is everything. Take anything you find
that's valuable. Take anything you want. It's all
free.
There's no charge. Click
here
for my
permission.
Everything you find here is valuable if you say it's valuable. It's not
if you don't. Ignore it if it's not valuable. If you find there's
nothing at all valuable here, then move on, and I thank you for your
time, and I thank you for visiting.